1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improved visual display of medical images, and in particular to an apparatus and method for providing an improved user interface for use by medical personnel in reviewing medical images.
2. Description of the Related Art
The collection and storage of a large number of medical images is currently carried out by a number of systems. The medical images can be collected by a variety of techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) ultrasound, and x-rays. One system which is disclosed for collecting a large number of medical images of a human body is disclosed U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,311,131 and 5,818,231 to Smith. These patents describe an MRI apparatus and method for collecting a large number of medical images in various data sets. The data are organized and manipulated in order to provide visual images to be read by medical personnel to perform a diagnosis.
One of the problems in reading a large number of images is for the medical personnel to understand the relationship of the images to each other while performing the reading. Another difficult task is interpreting the medical significance of various features which are shown in the individual images. Being able to correlate the images with respect to each other is extremely important in deriving the most accurate medical diagnosis from the images and in setting forth a standard of treatment for the respective patient. Unfortunately, such a coordination of multiple images with respect to each other is extremely difficult and even highly trained medical personnel, such as experienced radiologists, have extreme difficulty in consistently and properly interpreting a series of medical images so that a treatment regime can be instituted which best fits the patient's current medical condition.
Another problem encountered by medical personnel today is the large amount of data and numerous images which are obtained from current medical imaging devices. The number of images collected in a standard scan is usually in excess of 100 and very frequently numbers in the many hundreds. In order for medical personnel to properly review each image takes a great deal of time and, with the many images that current medical technology provides, a great amount of time is required to thoroughly examine all the data.